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Thupeyo Muleya, 

[email protected] 

COMMUNITIES in Beitbridge have lauded the Second Republic for its accelerated rural electrification programme which has resulted in seven public institutions — one clinic, four schools and two business centres — being connected to the national grid. 

The project being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has seen a total of US$404 000 being committed on the electrification of Dendele, Madali, Whunga primary schools, Malikuwa Secondary School, Whunga Clinic, Dombolidenje and Dendele business centres. 

Since its inception in 2005, the parastatal has completed 182 public projects in Beitbridge. 

Prior to the latest development, the area under Ward 10 of Beitbridge district had been without electricity for over three decades.

A solar project in the Tshituripasi area in Ward 1 is underway. 

“This is a good development for us. It is in line with the ongoing rural transformation program that is being rolled out by our Government,” said Ward 10 Councillor, Mr Edward Ndlovu. 

“Now that there is electricity in schools this will improve service delivery in the education sector here considering that the setting up of science laboratories had become an elusive dream. 

“In addition, small to medium projects, especially those relying on electricity will be able to function properly and grow in numbers at the business centres which have been electrified”. 

Mr Isaac Muleya from Dendele area said he was impressed by the rate at which the electrification project had been implemented. 

He said some villagers were expecting to use the electricity to carry out small horticulture projects to improve their incomes at household level. 

The connection of schools to electricity, he said, will gradually contribute to increased pass rates as the morale of both teachers and pupils was likely to improve. 

“We appreciate this gesture. The Government has responded to our continued plea for the connection to the national electricity grid,” said Mr Muleya. 

Mr Funny Thavhana said the number of school drop-outs will decrease since a school with electricity is child friendly. 

He said they were now focusing on mobilising computers and related resources to promote the teaching of science subjects in Ward 10. 

Mrs Elizabeth Dube said she was happy that the girl child in the area now has an opportunity to learn computer-related subjects and acquire basic skills due to the availability of electricity. 

“This is a great opportunity for our children to widen their choice of professions and subjects. You will note that before this development, our children were focusing more on social subjects, a disadvantage if we are to compare with the state of affairs in urban settlements,” she said. 

A pupil from Malikuwa Secondary School, Owami Dhlomo said they were looking forward to improved studies including the use of the study rooms at night. 

He said the availability of power will also help those wishing to go to night school. 

“As a student who has an interest in science related subjects, I am happy that we will be having a laboratory here to pursue our dreams. This has been difficult to establish due to the unavailability of power,” said another pupil, Gladys Mokeona. 

Speaking during the commissioning of the Whunga rural electrification project that covers seven public institutions last week, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Soda Zhemu said the initiative had been carried out in line with the National Energy Policy (NEP) that was launched in October 2012. 

He said as at March 31 this year, Government through REA had electrified 10 168 rural institutions  countrywide, using both grid and solar technologies. 

The minister said 1 000 of the institutions are in Matabeleland South and 182 in Beitbridge. 

“These include 50 primary schools out of 70, 16 secondary schools out of 18, 28 rural health centres versus a target of 30, two chiefs’ homesteads, 17 Government extension offices, 21 business centres, four small farms, 24 villages group schemes and 20 others,” said Minister Soda Zhemu–. @tupeyo